Decades ago, some students of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Purulia, watched a magic show on the sly. They had been barred from the show as the Madhyamik exams were to start in a few days.

When the hostel warden caught them in the act, they ran back to the hostel and in the rush broke a structure.

This and other such stories were retold with nostalgia at the reunion of the 1976 batch at New Town Business Club, in association with The Telegraph, on Thursday. “We called it ‘50 Years of Friendship’ because we were all admitted to the school in 1969 as students of Class IV,” Niranjan Goswami, a former student, said.

The school admits students from Class IV.

Of the 81 students of the batch, 33 attended the reunion. An organiser said they were in touch with 40 others and that they would try to connect with more in the coming days.

Some former schoolteachers, including artist Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, who was an art teacher, English teacher Biswarup Datta and Bengali teacher Swami Viswanathananda had been invited. “Family members of the students, too, were invited,” Goswami, who teaches English at a Chandernagore college and the convener of the reunion, said.

A cultural programme followed the introductory session and the day ended with dinner. A mega reunion has been planned for 2026, which will mark 50 years of the batch passing out of the school, an organiser said.